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Canadian 1978 Mini 1000 -- Post-Ev Conversion Cleanup


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#1 antidigerati

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Posted 05 September 2018 - 05:52 PM

Hey everyone.

 

Back in 2012 (ish) I converted my wife's 1978 Mini 1000 to fully electric. If interested you can check out the conversion diary at evmini.ca 

After a few years of being a daily driver and being exposed to the elements, I decided it was time to deal with the rusty bits before they get too much worse.

 

I hope this is alright posting this in the Saloons project area... although modified to be electric, it is still essentially the Mini 1000 saloon body.

 

Here she is pre-EV-conversion:

wpJttYO.jpg

 

And this is what she looked like fully-electric just a little while ago before I pulled her completely apart for this latest fixup.

G0yoSD2.jpg

 

Here are a bunch of photos detailing some of the rusty patches I need to attend to.

 

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I have no experience welding or doing body work but am happy to dig in and learn. I've made some progress since these photos were taken... mostly grinding down the rusty bits to see how bad it spreads.

 

Thanks for reading!

 



#2 unburntfuelinthemorning

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Posted 05 September 2018 - 06:24 PM

Not my thing, I'd miss my A series too much although maybe we'll all be doing these type of conversions in the future if petrol disappears.  All the best with the project, you've made a good start.



#3 unburntfuelinthemorning

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Posted 05 September 2018 - 06:33 PM

I just looked at the post about your sills on evmini.ca.  You'd be better replacing the inner and outer sills rather than trying to treat the rust inside.



#4 antidigerati

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Posted 06 September 2018 - 08:47 PM

Hey unburntfuelinthemorning. I get where you are coming from re: missing your A series. Hope I don't ruffle too many feathers with this thread.

 

I also took to heart your comments about my sills and went and bought new inners, outers and door steps.

As I have zero experience with the cutting and the patching and the welding, I first decided to start with a more manageable job.

 

This is the rear-right side-repeater hole that got removed a few years back and have always wanted to seal up. Doing so seemed moderately approachable for my skillset.

 

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Hope those welds aren't too cringe-inducing. 

 

 

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Tons of pinholes after the grind...

 

msfXuZh.jpg

 

Another spot-weld and grind iteration and much of it is looking better... but I've got some larger burned-through holes to deal with. Going to get some copper I can use as a backing to see if I can fill those.

 

As an aside, what are these large bolts for about midway along the doorstep? I notice my new doorsteps don't have them.

 

ye9t7nx.jpg



#5 GraemeC

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Posted 07 September 2018 - 05:56 AM

They look like plugs, presumably the sills have been treated with wax oil or similar in the past

#6 pete l

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Posted 07 September 2018 - 07:44 AM

Aren't they extra crash protection, they slide into a slot on the bottom of the door holding it all together in an impact ???????????



#7 antidigerati

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Posted 08 September 2018 - 05:39 AM

@pete l : Well how about that. Looks like you are correct. The underside of the door has this slot to accept that bolt. Extra crash protection makes sense.

 

kAsSzXk.jpg

 

...

 

Well, I mucked my patch job up pretty bad. I tried to fill the pinholes, which opened some larger burn-through holes. Then I tried to fill those in, re-ground, new holes, fill those, re-grind, new holes. Ugh. I tried all sorts of settings on my welder and I still haven't found the sweet spot.

 

I have a feeling the metal has been thinned so much that it burns-through with hardly a spark.

 

Ugh. I'm considering cutting the entire affected area out and starting with a fresh piece of sheet... but that rear corner panel has 3 other pretty significant upcoming patch jobs so am considering getting a complete new rear quarter panel and swap most of the whole panel in. That has its own set of daunting steps, but ultimately may be necessary.

 

I hesitate to even show this, but, we're all friends here right? Here is the awful patch job after all my clumsy repair attempts.

 

cDEFFM1.jpg



#8 jamesquintin

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Posted 08 September 2018 - 03:52 PM

You need to get yourself a piece of flat copper you can put behind the holes. Gives the weld wire something to push against and lets the weld fill the hole up

Q
 



#9 whiskymac

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Posted 08 September 2018 - 05:11 PM

This looks like it'll be a great project! I think I've read some of your conversion blog before, its definitely something I am interested in doing (although I may have to buy a second Mini so I can keep one with an A series as well!) one day.

 

Your welding looks better than mine :)



#10 Avtovaz

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Posted 08 September 2018 - 07:57 PM

Im not a very environmentally friendly type of guy but that motor looks brilliant! Will go and read your thread when i get time. Best of look with the repairs!



#11 antidigerati

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Posted 08 September 2018 - 11:53 PM

This looks like it'll be a great project! I think I've read some of your conversion blog before, its definitely something I am interested in doing (although I may have to buy a second Mini so I can keep one with an A series as well!) one day.


It really was a lot of fun to do the conversion. I'm happy to answer any questions if you need some encouragement.

Your welding looks better than mine :)


You are too kind :) But I am getting better now...

#12 antidigerati

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Posted 08 September 2018 - 11:59 PM

Im not a very environmentally friendly type of guy but that motor looks brilliant! Will go and read your thread when i get time. Best of look with the repairs!


Thanks! That HPEV AC50 motor is overkill for the tiny Mini, but I'd rather have too much power than too little. Part of this rebuild (but much later on) will be moving upwards of 12 of the batteries from the boot to the bonnet. Very little amount of space to work with, but I need more weight over those front tires to take advantage of all the torque.

#13 antidigerati

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Posted 09 September 2018 - 12:18 AM

Decided to cut out all my shoddy patch and fix it with a larger patch. If I do end up swapping that whole panel, at least I'll get some experience with the patching process.

 

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I am *way* more pleased with this. Glad I decided to start over with the patch. I was pickier with the fit and shaping and used a new sheet of slightly thicker gauge (16) material.

There are still some imperfections in the weld, but there doesn't seem to be any pinholes I need to fix.

 

I'm now aware that my tacks need to overlap if I want them to be a seam. Didn't know that the first time. 

 

Now on to deal with this monstrosity.

 

HIqQcZb.jpg

 

Don't yet know exactly how deep the rot goes...



#14 Risky

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Posted 09 September 2018 - 05:47 AM

That looks quite crusty! but nothing some sheet metal can't fix ;)

Nice conversion as well!



#15 antidigerati

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Posted 13 September 2018 - 02:29 AM

That looks quite crusty! but nothing some sheet metal can't fix ;)

Nice conversion as well!

 

Fair enough =)

 

So, digging into that corner resulted in me discovering both back corners of the boot were rusted right through...

 

MoR0eAt.jpg

 

So I got some replacement panels for each of those corners of the floor out the edge of the spare-wheel hollow. 

 

Embarrassed that I wasn't aware of how rusted out the edges of the boot were until now. 

 

So, decided to dig deeper and drop the rear subframe to get a better view of underneath. 

 

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So, I'll add some heel-board repairs and wheel-well cleanup to my list.

 

I noticed that there was multiple layers of sheet around where the bolts go through the boot into the subframe. Is that something I should reproduce after I get the new boot floor corners in place?

 

Also, what do people think of that rear subframe? I'm leaning towards finding something in better shape to work with and pass this one along to the local mini group.






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